
RED PROMINENCES SEEN DURING TOTAL ECLIPSES OF THE SUN. 455 
its evidence in favour of that hypothesis. That they really are material objects, 
and that they are situated in the sun, and not in the moon, is rendered still 
more evident by the following facts. 
3. On the Different Appearances of the Red Prominences, as seen at Different Stations, compared 
with the Effects which Parallax would produce, if the Prominences existed in the Sun. 
If the prominences were in the moon, they ought to have been seen 
almost precisely in the same positions, and of the same forms by all the ob- 
servers. If, on the other hand, they belong to the sun, when seen at all, their 
positions, and the forms of such parts of them as were visible, ought to have been 
identical in every case :—but owing to parallax, the moon would overlap the sun 
more on one side or the other, according to the observer’s position with reference 
to the line of central eclipse; and thus a low prominence near the sun’s north 
point might be hidden from an observer on the southern edge of the shadow, while 
a prominence near his south point might, in like manner, be invisible to an observer 
at the northern edge of the shadow. 
It follows from this, that while differences in the angles of position, or forms, 
assigned to the prominence by different observers, are equally unfavourable to 
the supposition that they are real objects existing in the sun, or in the moon; 
differences in the number and magnitudes of the prominences, although unfavour- 
able to the supposition that they exist in the moon, may admit of explanation 
on the hypothesis that they belong to the sun. 
If, then, the prominences existed in the sun, the effect of parallax, to observers 
situated near the edge of the moon’s shadow, would be to disclose the prominences 
on one side of the moon, while it hid those on the other side. Accordingly, we 
find that Mr Hinp, Mr Dawes, and Mr Goop, who were situated near the southern 
edge of the moon’s shadow, saw a long sierra of prominences extending over about 
120° of the moon’s southern limb, while they all failed to see the prominences, 
situated near the sun’s north point.* Even after making allowance for the effect of 
irradiation, which would diminish the apparent diameter of the moon, and thus 
increase the apparent height of the prominences, it appears that if their estimated 
height be correct, the parallax would be insufficient to hide any of them com- 
pletely. Still, however, it might diminish their apparent heights so much, that 
in the haste with which the observations were necessarily made, they might be 
overlooked; and the discrepancy noticed above is therefore so far in favour of the » 
_ hypothesis that the prominences belong to the sun. 
4. On the Occuliation of the Red Prominences by the Moon. 
That the prominences belong to the sun, seems to be proved most decidedly 
* Ast. Soc. Notice, pp. 67, 69; Edin. New Phil. Journal, Oct. 1851, pp. 365, 366. 
